Its good to hear that everyone is doing good! Im still hanging in there too and getting the hang of things with this new life of mine! Life has been a little bit stressful lately but we are taking care of everything and still managing to work in our area.
This last Tuesday we had our zone leaders counsol though and it was a little bit stressful to get ready for, but it all went really well. We had to present some new things that are going to be happening and we had to take care of getting all of the zone leaderes from all of the islands to here so it took a lot and i was excited to have it over with. Since then we have just been able to work in our area so its been kinda relaxing. Next week will be getting a little crazy again though, we have to go around with President Neves throughout the mission and give trainings. This next week we are going to all the districts here in Praia and Fogo, next week will just be one, and then the week after will be back up to Mindelo so i will be busy! Im still hoping that i dont end my mission like this, i dont think i was made to give trainings and stuff like that. I am learning some new things though!
So one of the new focuses in the mission is working with young men to try to help them prepare for a mission. Each companionship is supposed to have at least 2 guys that they are working with. We are working with one kid that is 24 to come teaching with us and hopefully he will get his papers taken care of this week, and we are also working with Pres. Neves´ 19 year old son. He didnt really have a desire to serve and he was really being pressured as you might expect seeing how he is the son of a mission president, but we started talking with him and it is kinda changing now. He is going to start teaching with us. I dont know if i told you this but Pres. Neves also has another son who is serving a mission in Salt Lake but will be ending in about a week so he should be able to help too.
Our area didnt have a whole lot of people to teach recently either but these last few weeks we have really been finding lots of new people and sorting through the ones that have interest. I saw that you guys mentioned Aduol with the byu basketball, and if he is the same one i heard about he is from the IvoryCoast, you guys might want to verify that though. We are actually teaching a way cool guy from the ivory coast. They speak french there but he has lived here for 3 years and is teaching at a private french high school. He is a really smart guy and really liking the Book of Mormon. He speaks portuguese really well but with a funny french accent. He is planning on coming to church this week along with 3 or 4 other new people and our 3 regulars that always come. I am hoping to find and baptize some good strong people though before my mission ends.
Friday, March 4, 2011
2-18-11
Hows it going? Everything is going good here, time is flying be even faster now that my scheduale has changed up a little bit. So i just barely got your e mail dad and i will hurry and answer your questions right now... there are just 2 assistants, my companion and i, so if i get transfered that means i wont be assistant anymore. This transfer is half way over so i am hoping to just stay one more after this one and then go to another area. Its not all that fun being in the mission office so i would hate to end my mission like that, but im almost positive i wont.
This week was really fun, i finally got to go to fogo for the first time this last tuesday and wednesday!!! It was even better than i expected there, if i could pick my last area to serve in it would be there or brava which is the little island right across from it. I dont have my pictures with me here but i will send them next time. Flying over it was cool, it looks just like a giant cone sticking right out of the ocean and i could see right into the crater. We just went to the main city there this time, são filipe, but it was really nice and peaceful and also really clean. The also have a lot more american foods there cause almost everyone there has family in america. It was cool to go out and teach there though and it was kinda hard to come back when we had too.
I also found out a bit of imformation about the mission that is kinda on the down low. Nobody in the mission is supposed to know this yet because it hasnt been announced in the church as of now, but our president told me and my companion who the new mission president is going to be starting in july. It is the Oliveira´s and they are brazilian but i guess have lived in Bountiful for a long time now. It should be good cause they will speak portuguese and english really well. It doesnt matter a whole lot to me cause i will only have a couple weeks with him and then will be leaving, pretty much the only thing ill have to do with him is my last mission interview and our farewell dinner but it will still be cool.
So thats about the news of the mission, not a whole lot is new. Here in our area it is extremely easy to find people to teach and get in peoples houses, but really hard to find anyone that actually wants to do something. It is a little different from Mindelo. And thanks for taking care of the drivers license, just get it here as soon as possible cause i will need it soon. I hope everthing is going good for ya guys though. Thanks for everything and have a good week.
This week was really fun, i finally got to go to fogo for the first time this last tuesday and wednesday!!! It was even better than i expected there, if i could pick my last area to serve in it would be there or brava which is the little island right across from it. I dont have my pictures with me here but i will send them next time. Flying over it was cool, it looks just like a giant cone sticking right out of the ocean and i could see right into the crater. We just went to the main city there this time, são filipe, but it was really nice and peaceful and also really clean. The also have a lot more american foods there cause almost everyone there has family in america. It was cool to go out and teach there though and it was kinda hard to come back when we had too.
I also found out a bit of imformation about the mission that is kinda on the down low. Nobody in the mission is supposed to know this yet because it hasnt been announced in the church as of now, but our president told me and my companion who the new mission president is going to be starting in july. It is the Oliveira´s and they are brazilian but i guess have lived in Bountiful for a long time now. It should be good cause they will speak portuguese and english really well. It doesnt matter a whole lot to me cause i will only have a couple weeks with him and then will be leaving, pretty much the only thing ill have to do with him is my last mission interview and our farewell dinner but it will still be cool.
So thats about the news of the mission, not a whole lot is new. Here in our area it is extremely easy to find people to teach and get in peoples houses, but really hard to find anyone that actually wants to do something. It is a little different from Mindelo. And thanks for taking care of the drivers license, just get it here as soon as possible cause i will need it soon. I hope everthing is going good for ya guys though. Thanks for everything and have a good week.
2-11-11
Hows it going? Thats weird that my e mail didnt make it to you guys last week, it kept saying it had problems but i thought it finally got off. Today after i send this one i can forward the one from last week too. So just to answer back about the questions, the drivers license will be done at triple-A (AAA) drivers licenses, they should have an office close by. Let me know if there are any problems with it... there are about 4 more weeks left of the transfer and i wont need it this transfer cause my companion drives, but i think he will be leaving by next one and then i will for sure need it. My companion is Elder Taggart from Salt Lake, he is actually from my district in the mtc too just like Elder Olson. We get along just fine and everything but we are definitely different from each other, its all good though we are having fun this transfer.
This transfer is actually running a lot more smoothly than expected. We had tons of different stuff to do the first little while of last week and then last Saturday and also Monday to Wednesday we had some divisions with the zone leaders, but since then things have kinda calmed down and we have been able to work more in our area. On our Saturday division I went up to Assomada and walked with Elder Rogers and Elder Isaacson, i was with both of them in Mindelo. It was way fun and that city is sweet, its the one high up in the mountains on this island and i felt like i was back in utah, it actually got really cold! Then on Monday night we headed up to Mindelo!!! I had been missing it quite a bit, its definitely a much better city than praia. So i went out and walked in my first area i served in in mindelo with E. Moreira who i already served with and his companion E. Vance from oregon. It was tons of fun and i got to see some people that i havent seen in a while. This next Tuesday we are going to be in Fogo doing our divisions there so i am really excited for that, it will be my first time there. Then after that all of the divisions should be over for the transfer.
Usually as assistants we would have to travel around everywhere to give trainings with President too, but as for now we wont have to do that, he said he wants us to have more time to be able to work in our area... thats exactly what i wanted too. Have our area is really nice and really rich and the other half is as poor and run down as i have ever seen. We actually share our area with the secrataries of the mission since we our both limited on time sometimes, especially them. We live with them too and we have the nicest house in the mission, i even had hot water until the heater broke yesterday. The other two guys are E. Barker from Ogden and E. Ryan from Alaska and they are cool guys and we share the same p day and everything so that makes it fun. So other than divisions and giving trainings another thing we have to do is look at all of the numbers of lessons and baptisms and all of that stuff that all of the missionaries had during the week, avaliate it, and then we have like a 5 hour meeting with president and talk about all it. That is what we do every Monday and it is probably my least favorite thing i have ever done in my life. And then besides that we just have a whole bunch of little errands to do and we teach and thats the lift of an assistant. I am pretty excited to drive here though, lets just say that if you can drive in Praia you can drive anywhere.
As for me rash it is still covering the palms of my hands. I dont know if i told y ou guys or not but it has actually made like 3 of my fingernails fall off now, its kinda some sort of mystery disease that nobody can figure out. I talked with a docter in Germany on the phone last week for a while and he is talking with dermatlogists to figure it out... i am pretty much just planning on getting rid of it when i get home. Its not so bad at the moment now and its not anything to worry about.
So this last week was pretty good. Today for 4 hours in the morning we got to do service. We had to take down a roof. The only thing is that roofs are just pure concrete here on top of cynder blocks so we used a jack hammer and sledge hammers to do it. It was actually a project of the branch and it was fun. I also have church in the same chapel as the other branch i served in here in praia so i got to see everyone i knew last sunday, it was fun i felt like it was a mini homecoming. We are teaching a few cool people now too but we need to find more cause we still dont have a lot, i will tell you a little more about them next week. Oh... one other cool thing about being here is the missionary couple here is awesome. Its the adams couple and theyre from Ogden and the guy really likes fishing so we are all going fishing next p day, he already bought poles. They also have us over for lunch and everything.
This transfer is actually running a lot more smoothly than expected. We had tons of different stuff to do the first little while of last week and then last Saturday and also Monday to Wednesday we had some divisions with the zone leaders, but since then things have kinda calmed down and we have been able to work more in our area. On our Saturday division I went up to Assomada and walked with Elder Rogers and Elder Isaacson, i was with both of them in Mindelo. It was way fun and that city is sweet, its the one high up in the mountains on this island and i felt like i was back in utah, it actually got really cold! Then on Monday night we headed up to Mindelo!!! I had been missing it quite a bit, its definitely a much better city than praia. So i went out and walked in my first area i served in in mindelo with E. Moreira who i already served with and his companion E. Vance from oregon. It was tons of fun and i got to see some people that i havent seen in a while. This next Tuesday we are going to be in Fogo doing our divisions there so i am really excited for that, it will be my first time there. Then after that all of the divisions should be over for the transfer.
Usually as assistants we would have to travel around everywhere to give trainings with President too, but as for now we wont have to do that, he said he wants us to have more time to be able to work in our area... thats exactly what i wanted too. Have our area is really nice and really rich and the other half is as poor and run down as i have ever seen. We actually share our area with the secrataries of the mission since we our both limited on time sometimes, especially them. We live with them too and we have the nicest house in the mission, i even had hot water until the heater broke yesterday. The other two guys are E. Barker from Ogden and E. Ryan from Alaska and they are cool guys and we share the same p day and everything so that makes it fun. So other than divisions and giving trainings another thing we have to do is look at all of the numbers of lessons and baptisms and all of that stuff that all of the missionaries had during the week, avaliate it, and then we have like a 5 hour meeting with president and talk about all it. That is what we do every Monday and it is probably my least favorite thing i have ever done in my life. And then besides that we just have a whole bunch of little errands to do and we teach and thats the lift of an assistant. I am pretty excited to drive here though, lets just say that if you can drive in Praia you can drive anywhere.
As for me rash it is still covering the palms of my hands. I dont know if i told y ou guys or not but it has actually made like 3 of my fingernails fall off now, its kinda some sort of mystery disease that nobody can figure out. I talked with a docter in Germany on the phone last week for a while and he is talking with dermatlogists to figure it out... i am pretty much just planning on getting rid of it when i get home. Its not so bad at the moment now and its not anything to worry about.
So this last week was pretty good. Today for 4 hours in the morning we got to do service. We had to take down a roof. The only thing is that roofs are just pure concrete here on top of cynder blocks so we used a jack hammer and sledge hammers to do it. It was actually a project of the branch and it was fun. I also have church in the same chapel as the other branch i served in here in praia so i got to see everyone i knew last sunday, it was fun i felt like it was a mini homecoming. We are teaching a few cool people now too but we need to find more cause we still dont have a lot, i will tell you a little more about them next week. Oh... one other cool thing about being here is the missionary couple here is awesome. Its the adams couple and theyre from Ogden and the guy really likes fishing so we are all going fishing next p day, he already bought poles. They also have us over for lunch and everything.
01-17-11
Hey everyone hows it going? Things are going just great out here in
> santo antao.... we headed out here this morning and will be staying
> until tomorrow night. We had our zone activity today, and then
> everyone from our zone will be headed back this afternoon while E.
> Olson and I stay here to do our division with the elders here, and
> then we will be taking a night boat back tomorrow.
>
> Our activity was awesome, it felt like I was in another country for a
> little bit. We headed up to the tops of the mountains here and then
> hiked down for the day. A very rare thing happened up there too, i
> actually felt a little bit cold during the morning while we were up on
> top, it was incredible. Its up in all the pine trees and for a little
> bit i felt like I was up af canyon or somewhere. If i ever decided to
> just not come back home and stay out here, i think that that is where
> I will live!!!! haha but dont worry i dont think we will have to worry
> about that. So we hiked down the canyon all the way to the botton and
> got to a city called Ribeira Grande which is a way nice little
> peaceful city right on the coast on the other side of the island.
> There arent missionaries there now but it doesnt hurt to dream to open
> it up one day! I think its actually the most north eastern point of
> any of the islands so you know what that means? It means that
> distance wise I was closer to home today than I have been at any other
> time since september of 2009 ( but time wise I was the farthest, to
> get home it would take a 45 minute car ride to the main port of the
> island, a 1 hour boat ride back to mindelo, a 15 minute ride to the
> other side of the island to the airport, a 45 minute plane ride to
> praia, an 8 hour plane ride to boston, a 5 hour plane ride to salt
> lake, and a 40 min drive to the home) so there are a few extra facts
> for you guys.
>
> So besides that we had a pretty fun week. Sandra is getting baptized
> this coming saturday and is doing awesome, she will be one of the
> strongest people I have ever taught! The branch is really excited
> about her and they are already talking about getting her a calling
> right after she gets baptized. We also met another way cool guy that
> we started teaching last tuesday and we have already taught him 3
> times. His name is Danny and he was born and raised in cabo verde but
> at 17 moved to a little city outside of boston. He is now 27 and just
> came back for his first time to visit in december and will be staying
> until about march or april, and his wife from america will be coming
> out in a little bit to visit. We just randomly contacted him and
> right during the middle of our conversation he stopped us and asked us
> if we spoke english ( thats how we found all that stuff out about him)
> so now we teach him in english. He shows ton of interest and is
> really excited to start coming to church out here. He wouldnt really
> be a big help to the church here since he doest live here, but he does
> have brothers that live here that we could start teaching because of
> him. So that pretty much sums up the week, besides that it was just
> the normal stuff.
>
> This next week should be really good and go by way quick. Once we get
> back to mindelo we already have all of our lessons planned for every
> hour of every day until the end of the week and members to teach with
> us. Then we have our next p day planned already (it could be my last
> in mindelo) and then right after we will be going down to praia for
> zone leaders counsel again.
> santo antao.... we headed out here this morning and will be staying
> until tomorrow night. We had our zone activity today, and then
> everyone from our zone will be headed back this afternoon while E.
> Olson and I stay here to do our division with the elders here, and
> then we will be taking a night boat back tomorrow.
>
> Our activity was awesome, it felt like I was in another country for a
> little bit. We headed up to the tops of the mountains here and then
> hiked down for the day. A very rare thing happened up there too, i
> actually felt a little bit cold during the morning while we were up on
> top, it was incredible. Its up in all the pine trees and for a little
> bit i felt like I was up af canyon or somewhere. If i ever decided to
> just not come back home and stay out here, i think that that is where
> I will live!!!! haha but dont worry i dont think we will have to worry
> about that. So we hiked down the canyon all the way to the botton and
> got to a city called Ribeira Grande which is a way nice little
> peaceful city right on the coast on the other side of the island.
> There arent missionaries there now but it doesnt hurt to dream to open
> it up one day! I think its actually the most north eastern point of
> any of the islands so you know what that means? It means that
> distance wise I was closer to home today than I have been at any other
> time since september of 2009 ( but time wise I was the farthest, to
> get home it would take a 45 minute car ride to the main port of the
> island, a 1 hour boat ride back to mindelo, a 15 minute ride to the
> other side of the island to the airport, a 45 minute plane ride to
> praia, an 8 hour plane ride to boston, a 5 hour plane ride to salt
> lake, and a 40 min drive to the home) so there are a few extra facts
> for you guys.
>
> So besides that we had a pretty fun week. Sandra is getting baptized
> this coming saturday and is doing awesome, she will be one of the
> strongest people I have ever taught! The branch is really excited
> about her and they are already talking about getting her a calling
> right after she gets baptized. We also met another way cool guy that
> we started teaching last tuesday and we have already taught him 3
> times. His name is Danny and he was born and raised in cabo verde but
> at 17 moved to a little city outside of boston. He is now 27 and just
> came back for his first time to visit in december and will be staying
> until about march or april, and his wife from america will be coming
> out in a little bit to visit. We just randomly contacted him and
> right during the middle of our conversation he stopped us and asked us
> if we spoke english ( thats how we found all that stuff out about him)
> so now we teach him in english. He shows ton of interest and is
> really excited to start coming to church out here. He wouldnt really
> be a big help to the church here since he doest live here, but he does
> have brothers that live here that we could start teaching because of
> him. So that pretty much sums up the week, besides that it was just
> the normal stuff.
>
> This next week should be really good and go by way quick. Once we get
> back to mindelo we already have all of our lessons planned for every
> hour of every day until the end of the week and members to teach with
> us. Then we have our next p day planned already (it could be my last
> in mindelo) and then right after we will be going down to praia for
> zone leaders counsel again.
01-12-11
Hey guys!
Hows it going? Its crazy how cold its been out there it sounds pretty crazy. It has actually been a little cooler here too this past month... its really nice but always super windy so its a little annoying. Lately Ive been having to sleep with a sheet over me though and I dont really use the fan around the house so much. Im sure it will be heating up though in just a few weeks! But so besides the cold how is everything going out there? Any new notices? I have one... I got packages from you guys mom and dad and also Shane and Ciara!!!!! Thanks a lot all of that stuff is exactly what I needed. We made some bisquits and gravy for breakfast and it was dang good! Thanks a lot again I really appreciate it!
So anyways I wish I had a whole bunch of crazy stuff to write you guys but i really dont. The highlight of the week was probably our zone conference, it was actually one of the best i have had yet. President Neves showed a clip from Blindside the movie about how a companionship is like a left tackle and a quarterback and how they always have to look out for each other. All the sudden right during the middle of it it all just clicked and I knew exactly what he was saying... he was speaking my language on that one! We learned a lot about faith during it too which is cool because its something that needs to be applied to the people here. Everyone here will tell you they have faith but nobody does anything to show it or anything. The theme of the conference was "Tonga" because Pres. Neves was talking about what Holland said about Cabo Verde and how one day it will be like Tonga and have 50 percent active members. Its got a lot of work to get there but he talked about how we can make it happen. E. Olson and I also gave our training about planning and it went pretty good.
Sandra, the lady we are teaching, is also going to be baptized in two Saturdays. We had to postpone it cause he had a situation from a while back and because of it she had to get interviewed from President Neves instead of just an Elder, but it was taken care of this weekend and is ready to go. She is way strong and has already read like half of the book of mormon and we just started teaching a few months ago. She says she cant go to sleep without reading a chapter, she is a stud! Pres. Neves talked about how she is really strong too afterwards with us. We were also able to find a ton of new investigators this week too and some are way cool. Its been a lot easier now that all of the parties have died down... now they just have their normal weekend parties and people have a lot more time to talk with us. We have a member here named Joao who was less active but these past few months has been coming to church every week. So the branch started inviting his wife and their little girl to some activites and stuff now and we started teaching them. They are really smart and have been to church the past few weeks. They are golden!
Hows it going? Its crazy how cold its been out there it sounds pretty crazy. It has actually been a little cooler here too this past month... its really nice but always super windy so its a little annoying. Lately Ive been having to sleep with a sheet over me though and I dont really use the fan around the house so much. Im sure it will be heating up though in just a few weeks! But so besides the cold how is everything going out there? Any new notices? I have one... I got packages from you guys mom and dad and also Shane and Ciara!!!!! Thanks a lot all of that stuff is exactly what I needed. We made some bisquits and gravy for breakfast and it was dang good! Thanks a lot again I really appreciate it!
So anyways I wish I had a whole bunch of crazy stuff to write you guys but i really dont. The highlight of the week was probably our zone conference, it was actually one of the best i have had yet. President Neves showed a clip from Blindside the movie about how a companionship is like a left tackle and a quarterback and how they always have to look out for each other. All the sudden right during the middle of it it all just clicked and I knew exactly what he was saying... he was speaking my language on that one! We learned a lot about faith during it too which is cool because its something that needs to be applied to the people here. Everyone here will tell you they have faith but nobody does anything to show it or anything. The theme of the conference was "Tonga" because Pres. Neves was talking about what Holland said about Cabo Verde and how one day it will be like Tonga and have 50 percent active members. Its got a lot of work to get there but he talked about how we can make it happen. E. Olson and I also gave our training about planning and it went pretty good.
Sandra, the lady we are teaching, is also going to be baptized in two Saturdays. We had to postpone it cause he had a situation from a while back and because of it she had to get interviewed from President Neves instead of just an Elder, but it was taken care of this weekend and is ready to go. She is way strong and has already read like half of the book of mormon and we just started teaching a few months ago. She says she cant go to sleep without reading a chapter, she is a stud! Pres. Neves talked about how she is really strong too afterwards with us. We were also able to find a ton of new investigators this week too and some are way cool. Its been a lot easier now that all of the parties have died down... now they just have their normal weekend parties and people have a lot more time to talk with us. We have a member here named Joao who was less active but these past few months has been coming to church every week. So the branch started inviting his wife and their little girl to some activites and stuff now and we started teaching them. They are really smart and have been to church the past few weeks. They are golden!
Jan 3, 2011
So how are you guys doing and how is 2011 going? It sounds like its pretty cold there! This week was a little bit longer for me here but it was still alright. The main reason for that was because of new years... these people here definitely like to party, so it didnt help having new years eve on friday night cause that just made all of the parties last the whole weekend until sunday! On new years eve we had to be at home at 6 because of all the partying so we didnt have a whole lot of time to even work that day with our weekly planning that morning. So that night E. Olson and I got in the house and just kinda hung out there... we made a bbq chicken pizza that was delicious and just did a puzzle and played a few games and stuff. We werent even allowed to have other missionaries come over and hang out with us but at least i had a cool companion to spend it with. We also sat on our balcony and watched all the people by their house and they were crazy, everyone was drunk and just partying! At midnight we went up on our roof and watched the firework show which actually lasted about 15 minutes and was probably better than anything i ever saw back at home besides the stadium of fire, it was way cool, and then we just headed to bed. Its a good thing i was tired because people were loud all night and the parties didnt stop until about 10 the next morning. When we went out to work new years morning both of our lessons fell through so we just went and did contacts but the only people that were really interested in talking to us were all the drunk guys on the way home from their parties. I cant even tell you guys how many times i got hugged by drunk guys that morning! Everyone just kept telling us they had to hurry and go him and get to sleep so that they could have their rest to get out and party even more that night! So anyways that was our new years here... to tell the truth im kinda glad the holiday season is over cause it made the work hard! We had so many people who told us to come by their houses but not until after the new year. Things should get normal again.
We also had a little disappointment this week with our best investigator Sandra. She is the one in her 30s and who started coming to church from her friend that is a member. So she was supposed to get baptized this next week, but she had a little bit of alcohol new years eve so now it will have to be put back for a couple more weeks. I dont think she understood the whole importance of that commandment before so i guess its kinda a good thing she did it so now she knows. She doesnt really have any problems though with it, its just a once in a while thing. She is still way strong though! We have another investigator that should be getting baptized about the same week too. We are keeping up the search for new people too.
Everyone in the branch is pretty cool here and they are trying to help us out. We actually got to head over to the elders quorom/ releif society party for dinner last tuesday and eat dinner which wasnt bad. We had lunch at my favorite members house yesterday too. He is cabo verdian but was born in brazil and he is in the district presidency here. He speaks perfect english and is more american than anything. They are an awesome family and way fun to hang out with... i will definitely have to keep in touch with all these people after the mission.
We also had a little disappointment this week with our best investigator Sandra. She is the one in her 30s and who started coming to church from her friend that is a member. So she was supposed to get baptized this next week, but she had a little bit of alcohol new years eve so now it will have to be put back for a couple more weeks. I dont think she understood the whole importance of that commandment before so i guess its kinda a good thing she did it so now she knows. She doesnt really have any problems though with it, its just a once in a while thing. She is still way strong though! We have another investigator that should be getting baptized about the same week too. We are keeping up the search for new people too.
Everyone in the branch is pretty cool here and they are trying to help us out. We actually got to head over to the elders quorom/ releif society party for dinner last tuesday and eat dinner which wasnt bad. We had lunch at my favorite members house yesterday too. He is cabo verdian but was born in brazil and he is in the district presidency here. He speaks perfect english and is more american than anything. They are an awesome family and way fun to hang out with... i will definitely have to keep in touch with all these people after the mission.
Dec 27, 2010
Well i wont take up too much time with e mail since we talked just a couple days ago. It was good to talk with you guys though, it felt weird because it had been so long! Im glad the phone quality was a little better this time and it was cool being able to talk with everyone! I hope you guys had a good christmas too... after i talked to most of you guys we headed over to the couples house and just watched a film and then headed back home and i went to bed, i had a pretty long day so i was tired. It was nice to have Sunday be the next day because i all we had was church, and then the afternoon we went out and taught and i tried to get back into the routine. I loved having christmas and everything, but it was kinda nice for it to end so i could get rid of the distractions and just go back to teaching and everything.
I dont really think that there is a whole lot new to say since we all talked, thanks are pretty much just going back to normal now after a few days of being out of the normal scheduale for Christmas. This week well be normal every day until the 31st . That night we have to be in the house by 6 because of all the partys and everything that are going to be going on, so i think we will just find some stuff to do there. On christmas eve it was the same deal and it was actually pretty fun... me and E. Olso made the best pizza i have ever had before, it was bbq chicken with oninions and we made a few other things too, so we just ate all night and then played a few games. I think new years eve will probably be about the same deal, and then at midnight we will just go on top of our house and watch the fireworks. Our house is really tall so we have a way good view from the top and supposedly the fireworks here in Mindelo are really good. On new years day im not exactly sure if we will work or not, but if we do and its anything like last year everyone will be sleeping and it will be really hard to find people. Word around the mission is that us zone leaders will be in charge of organizing a soccer game for all of us to do so that we have something to do and that president neves gave us the okay, so now we just have to find out for sure when and everything.
I dont really think that there is a whole lot new to say since we all talked, thanks are pretty much just going back to normal now after a few days of being out of the normal scheduale for Christmas. This week well be normal every day until the 31st . That night we have to be in the house by 6 because of all the partys and everything that are going to be going on, so i think we will just find some stuff to do there. On christmas eve it was the same deal and it was actually pretty fun... me and E. Olso made the best pizza i have ever had before, it was bbq chicken with oninions and we made a few other things too, so we just ate all night and then played a few games. I think new years eve will probably be about the same deal, and then at midnight we will just go on top of our house and watch the fireworks. Our house is really tall so we have a way good view from the top and supposedly the fireworks here in Mindelo are really good. On new years day im not exactly sure if we will work or not, but if we do and its anything like last year everyone will be sleeping and it will be really hard to find people. Word around the mission is that us zone leaders will be in charge of organizing a soccer game for all of us to do so that we have something to do and that president neves gave us the okay, so now we just have to find out for sure when and everything.
Dec 13, 2010
Everything is going pretty good here! We had a pretty cool week but nothing out of the usual happened, at least nothing too crazy. One cool thing was what happened on our division on our way to sao vicente. We were sitting there on the boat going over and we had a big shark swim right up to our boat, it was the coolest thing i have ever seen! It was a hammerhead and was at least 3 meters in length, it was really big! So there is the highlight of the week, i have been waiting this whole time to see one and now i have done it! Now the only thing missing is a whale. The division was really cool though and i love going over to Porto Novo because its so peaceful there.
Our investigators our still cool but we still have a lot of work to do. The retention rate of people baptized is kinda challenging here because people will leave for any small little thing, and we have a few recent converts in this area who we have to work on because of that. We also have some investigators who have been coming to church and stuff but wouldnt really do the things to get baptized, so we are switching focus from them more to finding new people. We had the opportunity to do some service with one of our investigators this week. On tuesday morning we went over there and painted a few of the rooms of his house, it was actually really fun. It reminded me of working from before my mission and we got a big lunch of feijoada with them. Its a dish with rice, a bunch of beans and stuff and a sauce so the service paid off. Our branch is still helping too but our President is still a bit strange. It seems as though i have got a calling in the branch now, the sacrament prayer, cause every sunday during sacrament when hes making the announcements he will decide right in the moment who will pray, and he always says my name. I think its because he finally remembers my name now and still doesnt really know the names of the other 3 elders in the branch. He always would look at our name tags, so i started covering mine up so he couldnt see it and had to learn it. Unfortunately who doesnt remember half the members either which makes the members not feel so welcome in church. There will be a member that has been baptized for 2 years and he will say 'hey whats your name to them' and they tell him and he goes "oh, are you an investigator of the elders" and then he have to jump in and say that its acually a member with a calling and everything. The leadership is a little week here but we are working on it. Elder Olson and I were supposed to teach the youth class for sunday school, so we brought a ton of candy for them, and then we found out that president told us wrong and that we would be teaching sunday school to all the adults, about 40 of them including the district president. We probably would have prepared different if we knew that but it was still an awesome lesson and everyone loved it. They especially loved that we handed out the candy to them and they started during into little kids trying to get it, you would have though they had never seen candy in their lives the way they were answering questions just to get a sucker.
Our investigators our still cool but we still have a lot of work to do. The retention rate of people baptized is kinda challenging here because people will leave for any small little thing, and we have a few recent converts in this area who we have to work on because of that. We also have some investigators who have been coming to church and stuff but wouldnt really do the things to get baptized, so we are switching focus from them more to finding new people. We had the opportunity to do some service with one of our investigators this week. On tuesday morning we went over there and painted a few of the rooms of his house, it was actually really fun. It reminded me of working from before my mission and we got a big lunch of feijoada with them. Its a dish with rice, a bunch of beans and stuff and a sauce so the service paid off. Our branch is still helping too but our President is still a bit strange. It seems as though i have got a calling in the branch now, the sacrament prayer, cause every sunday during sacrament when hes making the announcements he will decide right in the moment who will pray, and he always says my name. I think its because he finally remembers my name now and still doesnt really know the names of the other 3 elders in the branch. He always would look at our name tags, so i started covering mine up so he couldnt see it and had to learn it. Unfortunately who doesnt remember half the members either which makes the members not feel so welcome in church. There will be a member that has been baptized for 2 years and he will say 'hey whats your name to them' and they tell him and he goes "oh, are you an investigator of the elders" and then he have to jump in and say that its acually a member with a calling and everything. The leadership is a little week here but we are working on it. Elder Olson and I were supposed to teach the youth class for sunday school, so we brought a ton of candy for them, and then we found out that president told us wrong and that we would be teaching sunday school to all the adults, about 40 of them including the district president. We probably would have prepared different if we knew that but it was still an awesome lesson and everyone loved it. They especially loved that we handed out the candy to them and they started during into little kids trying to get it, you would have though they had never seen candy in their lives the way they were answering questions just to get a sucker.
Dec 6, 2010
Hows everything going? Its good to hear that everyone had a good week it sounds like. Everything has been going good here and i know i say this a lot but its still crazy how fast these weeks go by. Everyone out here asks if the time goes fast for us out here away from home and I tell them that one week to me is just like one day with 7 naps, its crazy. I had a really fun week though. On Wednesday we headed down to Praia again for another zone leaders counsol and once again we had a little time to go visit people. It was awesome seeing all them once again and even better to hear that all the people that were baptized are still doing good. I got to see carlos for the first time since i was transferred to Mindelo and they are doing good, he is a counsolor of the elers quorom presidency now, and Gilmara has a calling working with the young women now. Our counsol was shorter too and went good.
Well besides that i really cant think of anything else new that has happened. We did find a few new investigators though which is exactly what we needed, we have been making goals to find new people. Another new thing is that it is actually starting to feel like christmas here. Not because the weather but they have decorated the city a little bit, especially the chinese people. I didnt even know they celebrated christmas there but all their stores here have lights and stuff so its cool. We are passing out a lot of cards too that have a free christmas dvd to get so hopefully the people will be just a little more open during this christmas time.
We have been running into this guy in the streets that was deported from boston after living there for a long time and his situation is pretty sad so we are going to go try to help him. He always comes up to us in his boston accent and says "Yo, yur homeboy is starving man, ya'll need to help a brother out and help me with my alcohol problem cause your homeboy aint got nothing to eat" . Its pretty sad cause he just spends all of his money on alcohol and is always broke, and he has a little 4 year old daughter here too and she is really cute so its sad she has to live in those conditions. They seriously live in a shack. Live is hard here.
Well besides that i really cant think of anything else new that has happened. We did find a few new investigators though which is exactly what we needed, we have been making goals to find new people. Another new thing is that it is actually starting to feel like christmas here. Not because the weather but they have decorated the city a little bit, especially the chinese people. I didnt even know they celebrated christmas there but all their stores here have lights and stuff so its cool. We are passing out a lot of cards too that have a free christmas dvd to get so hopefully the people will be just a little more open during this christmas time.
We have been running into this guy in the streets that was deported from boston after living there for a long time and his situation is pretty sad so we are going to go try to help him. He always comes up to us in his boston accent and says "Yo, yur homeboy is starving man, ya'll need to help a brother out and help me with my alcohol problem cause your homeboy aint got nothing to eat" . Its pretty sad cause he just spends all of his money on alcohol and is always broke, and he has a little 4 year old daughter here too and she is really cute so its sad she has to live in those conditions. They seriously live in a shack. Live is hard here.
Nov 29, 2010
Hey guys!
Well i hope everyone had a good thanksgiving and that you guys are enjoying your snow. Its kinda been cloudy here but that just makes it even more humid so its kinda annoying. I know you guys have seen my pictures and have been thinking that i was putting on the pounds, but i am losing all of that now luckily from all the sweating i do. I think i am almost back down to the weight i started at luckily. But other than that this was a really good week. Our thanksgiving was way good, a million times better than last year! The goffs invited all of us over to eat at their house and i dare say that it was the best food i have eaten since i got here. We had all of the thanksgiving foods (just switch turkey with chicken) which was pretty cool. Elder Olson and I provided all of the stuffing, gravy, a cake and cranberry sauce. You guys are probably wondering how we scored all that stuff huh?... well lets just say we have connections out here. We know a lady out here whose daughter lives in Boston and she ships food over here to sell it. So the day before thanksgiving we passed her and she just gave us all that for free, it was way cool! Well it all turned out really good and i had a really good day, next up is christmas and it will be cool being able to talk to all of you guys.
Another cool thing that happened was on Saturday, a huge cruise ship came in to the port going from italy to brasil. It just so happens that part of our area is down by the port and one of our lessons fell through right there, so we decided to go do some contacts in that area. We kept running in to all the tourists from the ship and they started talking to us. The first ones were a couple from italy and the guy spoke just enough english to talk with us. He told us that they were being taught by the missionaries in italy right now and that they were really liking it and it made there day just seeing us. That was cool. So we just kept walking a little more and all the sudden i see this white guy yelling "Elder, elder" and comes running up to us. The first thing he said to us was "howdy" so i immedietly guessed he was from utah, and i was right. Turns out that there was a group of 80 people on the ship that were from the U.S. and all of them were members. They all served back in Brazil like 30 years ago so they were all going to visit again. Long story short we couldnt take 5 steps without a new couple running up to us. We started doing contacts with the people here and they would walk up and take pictures of us. I never felt like such a celeberty in my lift. It was really cool talking to them though and they had a lot of questions about the church and stuff and how its going out here on the islands. It felt weird seeing people from Utah. That night it sailed back out but the next day on sunday another one came in so on our way to church we saw quite a bit of tourists. During our church meetings a couple from england came in just to take a tour of the church, it was kinda weird but they were nice.
Other than the tourists and thanksgiving it was just a pretty normal week. Wait i take that back... one more thing happened. We had to go do a baptismal interview on Santo Antao one day and we were really tight on time and ended up missing the boat back, so we had to spend the night there. I can finally say i was stranded on a little island, can any of you guys say that? It was cool cause we got to go teach the people out there for the night. I love it there, it is so calm and peaceful, i wouldnt mind serving there at all. Well other than that things are about the same. We still have a lot of investigators but for a lot of them there are some challenges that are making it so they cant get baptized. We have taught them all for a while and pretty much they are to that point where they will have to decide for themselves what they are going to do so hopefully they make the right decision.
Well i hope everyone had a good thanksgiving and that you guys are enjoying your snow. Its kinda been cloudy here but that just makes it even more humid so its kinda annoying. I know you guys have seen my pictures and have been thinking that i was putting on the pounds, but i am losing all of that now luckily from all the sweating i do. I think i am almost back down to the weight i started at luckily. But other than that this was a really good week. Our thanksgiving was way good, a million times better than last year! The goffs invited all of us over to eat at their house and i dare say that it was the best food i have eaten since i got here. We had all of the thanksgiving foods (just switch turkey with chicken) which was pretty cool. Elder Olson and I provided all of the stuffing, gravy, a cake and cranberry sauce. You guys are probably wondering how we scored all that stuff huh?... well lets just say we have connections out here. We know a lady out here whose daughter lives in Boston and she ships food over here to sell it. So the day before thanksgiving we passed her and she just gave us all that for free, it was way cool! Well it all turned out really good and i had a really good day, next up is christmas and it will be cool being able to talk to all of you guys.
Another cool thing that happened was on Saturday, a huge cruise ship came in to the port going from italy to brasil. It just so happens that part of our area is down by the port and one of our lessons fell through right there, so we decided to go do some contacts in that area. We kept running in to all the tourists from the ship and they started talking to us. The first ones were a couple from italy and the guy spoke just enough english to talk with us. He told us that they were being taught by the missionaries in italy right now and that they were really liking it and it made there day just seeing us. That was cool. So we just kept walking a little more and all the sudden i see this white guy yelling "Elder, elder" and comes running up to us. The first thing he said to us was "howdy" so i immedietly guessed he was from utah, and i was right. Turns out that there was a group of 80 people on the ship that were from the U.S. and all of them were members. They all served back in Brazil like 30 years ago so they were all going to visit again. Long story short we couldnt take 5 steps without a new couple running up to us. We started doing contacts with the people here and they would walk up and take pictures of us. I never felt like such a celeberty in my lift. It was really cool talking to them though and they had a lot of questions about the church and stuff and how its going out here on the islands. It felt weird seeing people from Utah. That night it sailed back out but the next day on sunday another one came in so on our way to church we saw quite a bit of tourists. During our church meetings a couple from england came in just to take a tour of the church, it was kinda weird but they were nice.
Other than the tourists and thanksgiving it was just a pretty normal week. Wait i take that back... one more thing happened. We had to go do a baptismal interview on Santo Antao one day and we were really tight on time and ended up missing the boat back, so we had to spend the night there. I can finally say i was stranded on a little island, can any of you guys say that? It was cool cause we got to go teach the people out there for the night. I love it there, it is so calm and peaceful, i wouldnt mind serving there at all. Well other than that things are about the same. We still have a lot of investigators but for a lot of them there are some challenges that are making it so they cant get baptized. We have taught them all for a while and pretty much they are to that point where they will have to decide for themselves what they are going to do so hopefully they make the right decision.
Happy Thanksgiving
Hey family hows it going?
Everything is going pretty well here, just really hot!! It doesnt seem like winter at all so its kinda hard to believe that Thanksgiving is really here! It will be cool though, now that i found a lady here that has connections with food from Boston i will actually be able to get a little bit of american food! The Goff's house should be alright too, we will be going there for our lunch. It will be weird to be home next year and have a normal thanksgiving, i wont know what to do with myself with all that food.
So this week had a few days that were different from the basic routine. Yesterday and Saturday night was district conference... we were actually able to get i think 9 investigators to the sunday session along with a few less actives too. In total i think there were about 540 people there out of all the members from Mindelo, the branch from Santo Antao, and a few from Sal. The only bad part is that the Madrid temple president is american and didnt know a whole lot about cabo verde cause it looks like he thought flights came here from the mainland every half hour so he didnt get his plane ticket in time. We still had an area authority from portugual who gave some really good talks and it turned out well. On Friday we had a lidership meeting here too that the president and assistens came up for. It was the whole day which is a little long for me, but i learned a lot. One of the pluses about being in leadership is getting to learn new things that normally i wouldnt learn. The zone is going well though and there arent really any problems going on. The time is going by really fast with Elder Olson though... im curious to see if i will be transfered to another island right before christmas or just stay here one more with him. However, he told me that his dad knows a really good calling card that you can get for really cheap and thats what they have used for their phone calls. I think his dad will call you guys and let you know about it but i think it would be good cause the last two phone calls didnt work out as well.
So the people here are still doing really good, i decided im really going to miss them when i go home! It was kinda funny yesterday as we were walking to the conference in our suits, cause we never wear our suits. Everyone was just watching us and we were gettin a lot of attention, its not every day these people just see two white guys in suits walking around on these dirt streets. I would die if i had to wear a suit every day though. So one cool story is that there is a family who lives here and the parents our both inactive members, but two of the daughters who are about 20 and 25 are both active. The dad was actually the first branch president here in mindelo about 20 years back and everyone loved him so out of the older members nobody really knows why they went in active. Well we are just starting to work with them now and the dad came to conference yesterday and really liked it. The mom is a little harder but her mom just died and is having a hard time so we are goig to try to talk with her a little about the plan of salvation this week. Its hard to talk with her though and we still havent really been succesful. Our next baptism marked will be december 11 with sandra, a girl in her young 30s that is doing really good!
Everything is going pretty well here, just really hot!! It doesnt seem like winter at all so its kinda hard to believe that Thanksgiving is really here! It will be cool though, now that i found a lady here that has connections with food from Boston i will actually be able to get a little bit of american food! The Goff's house should be alright too, we will be going there for our lunch. It will be weird to be home next year and have a normal thanksgiving, i wont know what to do with myself with all that food.
So this week had a few days that were different from the basic routine. Yesterday and Saturday night was district conference... we were actually able to get i think 9 investigators to the sunday session along with a few less actives too. In total i think there were about 540 people there out of all the members from Mindelo, the branch from Santo Antao, and a few from Sal. The only bad part is that the Madrid temple president is american and didnt know a whole lot about cabo verde cause it looks like he thought flights came here from the mainland every half hour so he didnt get his plane ticket in time. We still had an area authority from portugual who gave some really good talks and it turned out well. On Friday we had a lidership meeting here too that the president and assistens came up for. It was the whole day which is a little long for me, but i learned a lot. One of the pluses about being in leadership is getting to learn new things that normally i wouldnt learn. The zone is going well though and there arent really any problems going on. The time is going by really fast with Elder Olson though... im curious to see if i will be transfered to another island right before christmas or just stay here one more with him. However, he told me that his dad knows a really good calling card that you can get for really cheap and thats what they have used for their phone calls. I think his dad will call you guys and let you know about it but i think it would be good cause the last two phone calls didnt work out as well.
So the people here are still doing really good, i decided im really going to miss them when i go home! It was kinda funny yesterday as we were walking to the conference in our suits, cause we never wear our suits. Everyone was just watching us and we were gettin a lot of attention, its not every day these people just see two white guys in suits walking around on these dirt streets. I would die if i had to wear a suit every day though. So one cool story is that there is a family who lives here and the parents our both inactive members, but two of the daughters who are about 20 and 25 are both active. The dad was actually the first branch president here in mindelo about 20 years back and everyone loved him so out of the older members nobody really knows why they went in active. Well we are just starting to work with them now and the dad came to conference yesterday and really liked it. The mom is a little harder but her mom just died and is having a hard time so we are goig to try to talk with her a little about the plan of salvation this week. Its hard to talk with her though and we still havent really been succesful. Our next baptism marked will be december 11 with sandra, a girl in her young 30s that is doing really good!
Nov 15 letter home
Hey everybody,
So its a little later here in the day cause we had been fishing all morning. It was really fun though, i had been waiting to go for forever so it was nice to finally get out and go! There were six of us missionaries and a member from one of the branches and we headed to the west side of the island where they have a way cool beach and a way cool areas to fish where it drops right down deep so there are a lot of fish there! We caught about 25 total with 1 octupus. It felt good to real in some fish after so long! The biggest one we caught was about 24 in. but they were the coolest looking fish i had ever seen, they were all realy bright and colorful! I also grabbed the octupus and its suckers on its tennacles started sucking onto my hand and it would stick to you, it was really hard to get off! I had a blast though and we will probably go again in not to long. I also saw a group of dolphins swimming out from us for the 3rd time on this island.
So other than that let me think of what has been going on... our area is still doing really good. This area is probably my favorite area i have served in so far just because there is so much work today and here in downtown Mindelo is an awesome area! Its pretty cool being with Elder Olson, we just need to remember to speak Portuguese more to keep improving instead of losing it. I feel like we got our area really organized now so now we know exactly who are the people who have interest. We also spent half of our time teaching all the recent converts of this area which is a lot... but now the branch is going to start teaching them so we will have a lot more time to teach normal investigators and help out the less actives. It will be cool. We have quite a few people that we are preparing for baptism now... i wish i could tell you about each one individually but that would kinda take a while... just know that they are cool people though! We are getting a lot of help from the members now and we are seeing tons of miracles that are happening and people that are wanting to change their lives! Well other than that i cant really think of anything that is new. These week i cant remember if i already told you guys but its district conference (stake conference) and we will be having the temple president from madrid coming to speak with us.
Well thats sweet about byu picking it up, now hopefully they can keep it going! It sounds like the utah jazz are on fire too, especially with beating the miami all star team! Well i hope everyone has a good week and thanks for everything! Good luck with the surgery mom.
So its a little later here in the day cause we had been fishing all morning. It was really fun though, i had been waiting to go for forever so it was nice to finally get out and go! There were six of us missionaries and a member from one of the branches and we headed to the west side of the island where they have a way cool beach and a way cool areas to fish where it drops right down deep so there are a lot of fish there! We caught about 25 total with 1 octupus. It felt good to real in some fish after so long! The biggest one we caught was about 24 in. but they were the coolest looking fish i had ever seen, they were all realy bright and colorful! I also grabbed the octupus and its suckers on its tennacles started sucking onto my hand and it would stick to you, it was really hard to get off! I had a blast though and we will probably go again in not to long. I also saw a group of dolphins swimming out from us for the 3rd time on this island.
So other than that let me think of what has been going on... our area is still doing really good. This area is probably my favorite area i have served in so far just because there is so much work today and here in downtown Mindelo is an awesome area! Its pretty cool being with Elder Olson, we just need to remember to speak Portuguese more to keep improving instead of losing it. I feel like we got our area really organized now so now we know exactly who are the people who have interest. We also spent half of our time teaching all the recent converts of this area which is a lot... but now the branch is going to start teaching them so we will have a lot more time to teach normal investigators and help out the less actives. It will be cool. We have quite a few people that we are preparing for baptism now... i wish i could tell you about each one individually but that would kinda take a while... just know that they are cool people though! We are getting a lot of help from the members now and we are seeing tons of miracles that are happening and people that are wanting to change their lives! Well other than that i cant really think of anything that is new. These week i cant remember if i already told you guys but its district conference (stake conference) and we will be having the temple president from madrid coming to speak with us.
Well thats sweet about byu picking it up, now hopefully they can keep it going! It sounds like the utah jazz are on fire too, especially with beating the miami all star team! Well i hope everyone has a good week and thanks for everything! Good luck with the surgery mom.
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